Independence Rock 2011 Finalists Announced

Last month, we couldn’t wait to give you news about I-Rock 2011 being announced amidst great fanfare (more on that here). Now, the finalists for this year have been announced. The winners of each regional round are going to perform live in Mumbai on Saturday, November 26  and the winner will then open the last day of I-Rock which is Sunday, November 27 while the other finalists will be flown back to their home cities in order to play shows there.

The finalists for this year’s I-Rock are Pip of the Fourth Mother (Kolkata), Life (Pune), Aftertaste (Mumbai), Escher’s Knot (Bangalore) and Arcane Deception (New Delhi). Zepheroth (rather, RedEnergyZepheroth) were announced as the Wild Card winners and will also participate in the contest to open the final day of I-Rock. Although the organizers have confirmed Zepheroth’s entry into the contest, there was plenty of outrage on the Independence Rock Facebook page. The Independence Rock organizers then released a statement on Facebook, check it out below.

It literally crushes us to see the comments that have done the rounds since we announced the MTS Wild Card Winner.

We apologize if any of our posts regarding the Wild Card contest was misleading.

It was clearly stated in the rules – something that all bands agreed to when they checked the terms & conditions box – that the Top 10 Bands will be reviewed and judged on the basis of the demo and video sent in. No where was it said that the maximum number of fans = winner of the contest. All we were trying to do is get all the bands to get their red energy levels up so that they could be a part of the Top 10.

The judges chose Zepheroth based on the sound cloud link (demo) sent in and the videos that were reviewed.

If you want to hate us, please do so with a little respect. There is a very small team who has been working day and night to give India one of the biggest festivals on a much larger scale and it is really hurtful that you call us these names just because you don’t agree with the result.

We would like to humbly ignore any more hate because we have a very very very BIG SHOW in 5 cities this Sunday. We are not “afraid”, “Corrupt”, “f*cking a**holes” – We are sincere, honest and hard working people.

Peace Out.

The rules are pretty clear, so we won’t wade into this debate. However, the stage is set for the six finalists to show the judges and the crowd what they’ve got.

More from I-Rock soon.